In April 2013, a yacht named "Marguerita" set sail from the port of Roses (Catalonia, Spain) bound for France. Shortly after sailing, a leak caused the ship to sink. Since the ship did not completely sink, the rescue and coastguard authorities thought it appropriate to tow it to the nearby port of Portbou to avoid possible collisions with other vessels. Nobody claimed the yacht as her property and for a long time, it was moored in the border port waiting for an administrative solution.
Little by little, people began to approach the port of Portbou to take pictures next to the yacht. What at first were a few curious people ended up becoming a parade of people who openly showed their interest in taking a portrait next to the boat. How is it possible that a boat abandoned to its fate and rescued by maritime salvage produced so much interest among the population? The reason was none other than several local newspapers reported that the boat belonged to actor John Wayne.
It seems that one of the Hollywood actor's greatest hobbies was sailing, as evidenced by the numerous photographs that exist of Wayne at the helm of one of his yachts. It is also true that he was sailing along the Costa Brava at the time he filmed the movie "Circus World" in Barcelona, known in Spain as "The wonderful world of the Circus", in 1964. But that's as far as the coincidences.
Gossips say that the first yacht that belonged to John Wayne was the "Marguerita", a 20-meter-long wooden Crusader built in Massachusetts in 1933. The name of the boat came from an old lover of the actor, who they say fell in love with. the ship and decided to name it after him. In 1948, a replica of the yacht was ordered to be built as it was part of the sets of the movie "Red River", and as the actor feared that his hull would be damaged, he preferred to use a replica. On the actor's death in 1975, he bequeathed the yacht to his lawyer, with whom he shared a passion for the sea. From then on she lost track of her until she reappeared in 2009, when "Marguerita" competed in the Admiral Conde de Barcelona Trophy.
When the authorities put the ship in a dry dock after being refloated, they found that the vessel was painted yellow, had a very poor hull, and the rest of the ship was in a very advanced state of deterioration. The restoration work only gave problems and losses to the port of Portbou, but it was finally able to be sold for half a million euros.
The reality is that John Wayne owned a yacht named "Norwester" on his property. If we look at the photographs of both vessels, we will have the impression that they are sister ships. Their resemblance is truly astonishing, but one should not be carried away by the popular fantasy of some local journalists as the "Norwester" continues to navigate North American waters to this day. Another fact that is overlooked is that when the actor sailed along the Costa Brava he did so with the “Wild Goose”, an old American army minesweeper transformed into a luxury yacht by Wayne himself.
